CHAPTER 33
Admiral of the Navy.
The apex of the Navy Headquarters' combat power.
Also, the strongest arm of the World Government.
In the past, whenever Admirals moved into battle, it was seen as the beginning of the end—for pirates. Losses were rare. Injuries, even rarer.
But now—
Among the three admirals, Sakazuki, the one known as Akainu, possessed the most destructive offensive power.
And yet, after a single clash with Ragnar…
He was seriously injured.
The sailors aboard the prison ship stood frozen in disbelief.
"You… you're joking, right?"
"That's Admiral Akainu!"
"Sakazuki, with the power of the Magma-Magma Fruit… defeated in one move?!"
Even after witnessing it, they struggled to accept what had happened.
"Maybe… maybe he was still recovering from the battle with Kaido!"
"Even so… for him to deal such damage to Sakazuki in one blow... Ragnar truly lives up to the legends!"
From the icy deck, Aokiji slowly raised his head to the figure above—the youth standing calmly atop a drifting cloud.
"He's… too young."
A trace of unease flickered through his eyes.
Ragnar looked no older than seventeen, eighteen at most.
Yet his strength had already reached the summit of the seas—capable of clashing with the strongest on the Grand Line.
And that… was what troubled Aokiji the most.
"Kuzan… don't look into his eyes."
Akainu's low, ragged voice pulled him back.
"Never… look into that vertical pupil of his."
"It's not normal. If you make eye contact—your body freezes up."
Akainu's face contorted slightly, pain lacing his expression as blood trickled from his lips.
"It's like Red-Haired Shanks' Conqueror's Haki… but different.
Shanks knocks you unconscious.
He—paralyzes you. It's worse."
He coughed violently.
"Elemental dodge… doesn't work. You saw it."
"I already turned into magma, scattered my body—and I still got hit."
The memory of that helpless moment—the inability to move, to even think of moving—sent chills through his core.
"You should rest—" Aokiji began.
But Akainu waved him off.
"There's no time to rest. Not until Ragnar is buried in magma."
The magma user rose unsteadily to his feet, blood staining his uniform.
Swordsmanship. Physical prowess. Haki. Devil Fruit mastery.
He wasn't an Admiral just for his fruit.
He was a warrior—through and through.
"Don't you see, Kuzan?"
"That kid… he's a threat."
"Face him one-on-one, you will lose. No matter who you are."
With one fierce motion, he tore off the bloodstained admiral's cloak and let it fall to the ice.
Aokiji stared.
No surprise on his face.
No resistance either.
Because Queen had said it best before Ragnar ever landed:
"The Navy doesn't fight fair."
"Even if it's a top-tier battle—they'll gang up if they can."
"That's just smart war."
"Even if we can't kill Kaido," Akainu growled, voice like a furnace,
"Ragnar won't leave here alive."
"If it means sacrificing G1… so be it!"
He launched into the air like a rocket, feet slamming down to propel his burning form skyward.
"Ragnar!! You'll die at the hands of two Admirals!!"
Without hesitation, he opened with his strongest technique:
"Meteor Volcano!!"
BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM—
Like the sky itself had turned into a battlefield, magma fists rained down with the force of a thousand cannons.
One after another, magma fists the size of mountains rained from the sky, blazing like miniature suns, crashing down on Ragnar with the force of meteorites.
At the same time—
Crack!
Aokiji, silent and grim, placed one hand on the ground.
In an instant, countless ice spikes burst upward with a thunderous snap, exuding a deadly cold that pierced the air like an avalanche of spears.
The two extremes—scorching heat above and freezing cold below—converged on Ragnar like a divine punishment.
From a distance, the battlefield looked split in two:
On one side, a burning sky scorched by Akainu's magma.
On the other, a land of frost, blanketed in Aokiji's ice.
And Ragnar stood in the middle—caught in the heart of hell and winter.
"Die!" Akainu bellowed from the heavens.
Aokiji's eyes narrowed, cold intent surging in silence.
"Die?"
A sneer curled on Ragnar's lips. "Even the admirals of the navy... are but insects before me!"
The sky seemed to tremble as Ragnar took a single step into the void.
His body radiated divine brilliance, golden light piercing through the cloud-choked heavens and illuminating the New World below.
In that light, his form expanded—growing taller, broader—until he towered at 300 meters, clad in silver armor and flowing black robes. The vertical eye on his forehead blazed open, shining with judgment.
"Carrying Mountains, Chasing the Sun!"
His voice shook the air like thunder.
From above, he looked down on Aokiji and Akainu—mere specks at his feet.
With a single step forward, the countless ice spikes surged by Aokiji shattered beneath his heel, turning to glittering shards.
He raised his other foot and brought it crashing down on the frozen plain—
BOOM!
An entire ice field, stretching nearly a kilometer wide, ruptured and broke apart like glass.
Ragnar grabbed the fractured ice mass—an island-sized chunk of frozen earth—and, with one hand, hurled it skyward.
The massive ice island roared through the air like a comet, colliding with Akainu's descending meteor volcano.
CRASH!!!
The skies exploded in wind and steam.
Flaming meteors shattered on impact, scattered like dying stars.
Steam and smoke poured across the battlefield, veiling it in mist.
And when the haze cleared—Akainu's fearsome meteor volcano was gone.
All that remained was white vapor hissing into the sky.
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